CHAMPAIGN – Many University of Illinois students and employees will soon need to find a new place to work out.

The campus' main recreational facility, the Intramural Physical Education Building, or IMPE, will close at the end of the month for a two-year expansion and renovation. Jan. 29 is the last day the main part of the building, at 201 E. Peabody Drive, C, will be open. However, the east wing, with basketball courts, a strength and conditioning area and locker rooms, will remain open.

URBANA – Kenneth Rinehart may have been a landlocked Midwesterner, but his research as a University of Illinois chemistry professor took him scuba diving off the coasts of Baja California and Spain, to the San Juan Islands, and to mangrove swamps in Puerto Rico.

Mr. Rinehart, who died June 13, 2005, after several years of battling Alzheimer's, was internationally known for his work with marine organisms containing compounds that might be helpful in fighting cancer. His wife, Marlyn Rinehart of Urbana, has donated money for a $2 million endowed chair in his name in the chemistry department, the second major endowed chair in the department.

URBANA – International students do much of the work in research labs at the University of Illinois, providing the basis for important scientific discoveries. After graduation, they supply brain power to U.S. universities and corporations.

But the ability of the UI and other universities to attract international students has been hampered by more stringent visa requirements after 9/11 and competition from universities in other countries. So discussions by federal officials – starting with President Bush – about efforts to bring more such students to the United States was welcome news to Chancellor Richard Herman.

URBANA – If the University of Illinois files an appeal regarding its use of Chief Illiniwek with the NCAA's executive committee before Feb. 1, any sanctions due to its use of the symbol will be waived until late April.

The restrictions are to go into effect Feb. 1, along with an NCAA policy forbidding use of "hostile or abusive" American Indian imagery. The policy forbids schools using such imagery from hosting postseason competitions or displaying the nicknames, logos or imagery at the events.

URBANA – The University of Illinois and its visiting academic professionals will begin bargaining Jan. 24, although an appeal filed by the UI and an unfair labor charge filed by the union are pending.

This is the first time the UI will bargain with any of its academic professionals at the Urbana campus. The visiting academic professionals voted last April to form a union, which will represent about 370 employees. They hold the same types of jobs other academic professionals do, but differ in that they are hired in a different way.